Twins 2, White Sox 3: Offense Can't Help Diamond's Solid Effort

Though Scott Diamond did his best to get his 10th win today (by pitching very effectively; take note, other Twins pitchers), the Minnesota offense just couldn't stand up to the challenge--or Jake Peavy. The Twins haven't had issues scoring runs these past few weeks--in fact, they tied with the Angels for most runs scored in July--but today, they certainly had trouble plating runners. Thankfully, Scott Diamond pitched another great game for the Twins, doing his best to keep the team in it. He went 7.1 innings, only giving up the three earned runs (and 8 hits...). He did strike out 3 Chicago batters, and managed to limit the walks to...well, none. After Diamond was pulled after a de Aza comebacker in the 8th inning, Jared Burton came in to finish the 8th. He got the Twins out of the inning, and Alex Burnett pitched a relatively clean ninth inning, only giving up a hit and striking out one. Combined, Twins pitchers gave up 9 hits and no walks. Not great in the hits column, but an excellent performance limiting free bases.

The rest of the recap after the jump...

While it struggled, the Minnesota offense wasn't completely incompetent today, as Danny Valencia hit his second homer of the year off of Jake Peavy in the 2nd inning. The home run brings his average up to a whopping .203 (yes, yes, I know, he's been in AAA). Joe Mauer, noted terrible baseball player, knocked in (kind of) his 50th RBI of the year, with a groundout to first base that scored Ben Revere in the 1st inning. Oh, and he drew a couple walks on top of the groundout RBI. Awful. Other than that, the Twins offense was fairly silent. The White Sox combined for 3 runs off Diamond, with Adam Dunn, Alejandro de Aza, and Tyler Flowers all collecting RBI today.

Studs
-Scott Diamond...feel free to just keep throwing those quality starts.
-The bullpen, again. I like how often I get to include them. Way better than DisasterPen was!
-Valencia/Mauer. Runs!

Duds
-Josh Willingham. 0-fer.
-Justin Morneau. Ditto.
-Jamey Carroll. Yep.

Notes
-Diamond had only thrown 93 pitches when he was taken out of the game. It's really nice to see a Twins starter be this consistent with their quality starts.
-Valencia's home run was his first since April 23 of this year.
-Jake Peavy looks strange. That is all.

Tomorrow, the Twins take on the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. The fun starts at 6:10 pm CST. Go Twins!